Sunday, October 25, 2015

I just adore these Edwardian costume ideas! I'm not really sure which is my favourite. The "river fantasy" would be easy to replicate, but I quite fancy the Versailles Garden or the Birdcage dress too.

My own costume this year will be much less exciting, although even with Halloween fast approaching, I'm still undecided as to what to wear. I have a few ideas, but I don't think I will make up my mind until the day. I'm just handing out candy, so I don't want to spend too much time/money on my costume. Hopefully next year I will have a fancy Halloween party to justify a more extravagant costume!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Hello everyone! I've been stuck in bed with a nasty cold for the last couple weeks, but I'm finally on the mend. I haven't posted any Youtube videos because, with my cold, I was not a pretty sight! My normal video schedule should resume this week (tip of the week on Monday, and longer tutorial on Thursday). I also bought my first autofocus lens for my DSLR, so expect lots of outfit photos and just random photos of anything vintage-y I want to share. And yes, I've had the camera for 8 years and have been manually focusing the whole time (or opting to use my cheap point and shoot instead). I feel kind of silly for not buying a proper lens earlier....

I've been super busy catching up with everything I fell behind on while I was sick. I did take today off though, and went for my annual shopping trip to Toronto with Britt. I bought a cute vintage coat, a vintage style cloche, and Britt bought me a couple awesome vintage garments for Christmas. I can't wait until I can share them! For now, here was my outfit for the trip:

The dress is from a 1930's pattern, and both the blouse and dress were constructed from vintage fabric. I paired it with my new grey glass pearls, and Alfred, my faux fur stole I made a few years ago (if you look close, you can see his little face!).

I actually changed my footwear to a comfy pair of boots and added a coat before we left. It was much too cold to go without (it snowed today!), and even comfy flats are not good for a lot of walking.

Britt and I on the train

We started the day with coffee, just outside of Union station:

Of course we needed another by mid afternoon!

As I mentioned, I've been busy this week catching up on all the things I couldn't do when I was sick. This includes working on a lot of new clothing for the shop. I been making a ton of organza snowflake scarves for winter, and working on developing some more clothing designs.

I've also been testing out my "new" 1920's hair clips. Aren't they awesome!? I used them to do my hair today for the trip, and the results looked great and lasted all day. I bought these clips cheap because they were damaged, bent out of shape, and rusted. A little steel wool, pair of pliers, and 30 minutes and I had them back to near original condition! I love the look these give. It's a perfectly authentic 1920's wave and super easy to do. There is also no need to worry about heat damage (unlike marcel waving with a curling iron). I plan on posting a Youtube video showing how they work, but for now here is a quick snap taken first thing in the morning (after sleeping with them in all night):

I have a busy couple weeks coming up. I'm planning on filling my shop with a ton on new clothing, as well as preparing merchandise for my booth local Christmas Market (anything that isn't sold will then also be available on my Etsy!). I'm also going to be filming a bunch of youtube videos, so next time I get sick there will be a nice little buffer of videos I can continue to roll out! Also the room makeover continues. My studio space is almost done, but I'm moving some of my stuff into my bedroom (and vice versa), which has turned into a mini bedroom makeover as well! Yikes! I better get working on all those things!

Saturday, October 3, 2015

It's finally finished!! Yeah, so that took longer than the few days I originally assumed it would. The project was side-lined for a while (due to health problems and other projects that had priority), but last week I got to work and finished her.

Isn't she a beauty? I snapped a few quick pictures to share, but I will post some better pictures when my sewing studio makeover is completed. Everything is a bit of a mess at the moment, but it is starting to come together. The chaise was the first step in turning my old "hobby room" into a proper work space. I've been making do with a multipurpose space for too long and need a space dedicated solely to the business.

Anyways, the chaise was certainly an ambitious project for my first major re-upholstery project, but I am quite happy with my results.

Before:

(Brown painted wood, discoloured and faded fabric)

After:

I picked a turquoise blue fabric and light grey paint. When I took off the old fabric, I realized just how massively faded it was and rather icky. The new fabric is so much better! (The lighting in here was weird when I took the photos; the new fabric is less shiny and smoother than it looks in the photos.) The fabric has an almost velvet like feel and is super soft. The colour also looks great with the green walls of my studio. I had originally planned on making trim to finish off the edges, but I went with a grey gimp instead since I didn't have enough fabric left. I think the gimp actually looks better than the trim I was going to do!

Final price for this one-of-a-kind beauty? With all the material, paint, etc she ended up costing about $230. My goal was to spend less than the $340 it would have taken to replace my cheap Ikea sofa. I think I succeeded there! It always surprises me how antiques can often be less than buying from a big box store. Normally one thinks antique=expensive, but that really doesn't have to be the case. Some antiques are pricey, but there are still plenty of bargains to be found.

Speaking of bargains, I also just bought a Victorian chair to replace my old desk chair. My previous chair was also from Ikea. The Victorian chair I ended up replacing it with is solid wood, with soft green velvet (which doesn't need replacing, yay!!). Price difference? The Victorian was $10 cheaper than replacing the Ikea chair. I mean, which would you rather have?!

Old vs New

Well, I should get back to work on my studio makeover. I hope everyone is having a great weekend!